Chapter 10: Manipulation

•£• Loki •£•

The instant Katirya left, Loki noticed the emptiness. He had not realized how much he had come to depend on her presence. And with Thor missing, it was even worse. He had never expected these feelings. He knew that she was well protected, and from their brief visit there, he was not overly concerned. Cartherion was a mess, but the potential for danger was limited, especially with Thanos not there.

"You are going to wear a hole in the carpet, my King."

Sif's voice broke through his thoughts. He looked down at his feet, surprised that he was indeed pacing. "I am sorry."

"There is no need to be sorry. I understand. I am worried as well." Sif admitted.

"Kiri will be safe, she has the Warriors Three, her brother and a guard." Loki pointed out, moving to pick up a table that had been tossed over in the room. He could hear the sounds of Darcy and Katirya's brothers working in another room.

"It is not Kiri we speak of, is it?" Sif asked.

"Where can he be?" Loki's fist slammed into the table. "I do not understand why he has not escaped. That is the issue that concerns me the most. The last time he was stuck somewhere, it was on Earth, when Odin took away his powers. Could Thanos do that?"

"I know not, but you do bring up an interesting issue, combined with the fact that Thanos has them in hiding, Heimdall can find no trace of them." Sif told him what she had learned from her brother. "Do you truly think he took them to Hel?"

"Where else would they be? Why would he provide a list that points to that location unless that is where he wants me to go?" Loki was pacing again.

"We have a visitor," Sif spoke quietly, pointing to the woman standing in the doorway.

Loki whirled to see Jane Foster standing there. "Jane!" Relief flooded his voice. "Where is Thor? Is he with you?"

Jane stared at him, saying nothing at first. "You are Loki?"

Loki gaped at Jane. "Of course I am Loki. Who else would I be?"

"I have been instructed to give a message to Loki. Since you are Loki, here is the message," Jane paused. "You are to travel first to Earth with the one known as Katirya. Find the one known as Erik Selvig. He is to travel with you to Hel. Once you are there, you will be given further instructions. If you do not do this, your brother will not survive."

"Earth? And why Erik?" Loki was surprised at the odd instructions. His frustration came out in the form of rapid questions. "And then I am to go to Hel? Why can I just go there first? What difference does Selvig make?"

"Those are the instructions. You are to follow them." Jane walked out of the room.

"Wait!" Loki ran after her. Once he reached the hall, he looked, but there was no sign of Jane Foster. "Where did you go?" He bellowed.

Sif joined him. "Well, that was odd."

"Odd? That is the best you can come up with?" Loki walked away, heading towards the Bifrost. "I am going to go find Erik, though why Thanos wants him is beyond me."

"Loki! No!" Sif shouted, running after him. "You cannot go alone!"

"I can, and will! I will not wait for Kiri. To bring her anywhere near Thanos is a mistake. She will be safe here, when she returns. You are not to tell her where I have gone." Loki ordered Sif as they ran towards the Bifrost.

"Loki, stop. Think this through. He is dangerous. You know that." Sif pleaded with him. "I cannot believe I am trying to stop you."

"Yes, it has always been your wish to see Thor as the King, hasn't it? I was never good enough. Well, if I do not find your precious Thor, he will never have a chance to take the throne." Loki's voice was deadly calm.

"Loki, I was wrong about you. I have come to realize that. Yes, I always did expect Thor to be the King, but we all did. Odin made his preference quite obvious, and if we all followed his lead..." Sif shook her head, "then I am sorry for that, but I have seen that you are as good. You are a good king."

"Really? As good?" Loki sneered. "That is supposed to make me feel better? I think, Lady Sif, that you need to go back there, help the others straighten up. I am going to find my brother."

Sif matched his pace, refusing to turn back. "I cannot allow you to go alone. You heard what Jane said. They expect you to travel with Kiri. I can go with you, pretend to be her."

Loki stopped, looking at Sif. "You would do this?"

"I love Thor. He may never accept that, but I would do anything to save him." Sif replied honestly.

"It might not work. Thanos might be able to see through any illusion I create." Loki warned her.

"It doesn't matter. I want to help." Sif insisted.

Loki held out his hand, "Truce?"

Sif accepted his outstretched hand, "Truce."

•∂• Darcy •∂•

Darcy straightened up from the cleaning. Looking around, she noticed that Loki was no longer pacing outside the room she was in. "Anybody see where Loki went?"

Sean shook his head. "No, why?"

"I dunno. But I thought I heard Jane's voice just a moment ago." Darcy scratched her head. "But that can't be, can it? I mean, Thanos has her, right?"

"Yes, he does. I doubt he would send her here. But we can go find out where Loki went," Sean headed out into the hall.

"Sif's gone too!" Greiwaldt noted.

Sean and Greiwaldt exchanged looks. "No, they wouldn't, would they?"

"Would what?" Darcy asked, completely confused.

"Go to try to find Thor. I'll bet that's why Loki sent Kiri off to Cartherion, to keep her busy while he went looking for his brother." Sean surmised.

"Wait, you think Loki did that? Why…?" Darcy looked at the brothers. "And that list was fake. I thought we all agreed on that, so where would he go? The last Stone is probably somewhere else, like the moon, or Saturn or something."

'This isn't about the Stone, Darcy," Sean looked at her. "This is about his brother. Thanos knows how to push Loki's buttons. We've seen that before. You've seen it, on Earth."

"You're right, but I don't get it." Darcy thought about what they said, remembering the attack on Earth that Loki had been responsible for.

"Simply put, Thanos wants Loki. He will make him pay for his screw up on Earth. Thanos expected more… a lot more." Sean explained. "He expected to have Earth handed to him on a silver platter, and with it, the Tesseract."

"Well, he can't help it that the Avengers were there. I mean, like, they saved everything." Darcy pointed out.

"Thanos doesn't care. It was not what he wanted. And don't forget, he wants Kiri too. He will do anything he can to get both of them. Holding Thor as a hostage is his way of trying to get Loki mad. And it seems like it worked, since he is gone. Let's go see what Heimdall can tell us," Greiwaldt sighed. "I can't see him anywhere, can you?"

Sean shook his head. "No, neither him or Sif."

"How can you guys just see things? That is one cool thing I wish I could do. And then how do they hide?" Darcy asked.

"One day, humans will learn, but for now, you will simply have to accept that we can do this." Sean answered.

"Heimdall!" Greiwaldt called out as they reached the portal. "Where did Loki go? And the Lady Sif? And do not try lying. We know they went somewhere."

"Jane Foster was here." The sentry of the Bifrost replied, not responding to the questions.

"JANE! Where is she? Is she all right?" Darcy shrieked with joy. "I told you I heard her voice!"

"No, she is no longer here, and her mind is still lost." Heimdall replied grimly.

"What was Jane doing here?" Sean asked.

"She brought a message for the King."

~§~ Lady Sif ~§~

"I cannot believe he did that!" Sif appeared in the portal.

"Sif!" Everyone shouted in unison.

"Where were you?" Darcy asked.

"With Loki, and he sent me back here. I cannot believe he is going alone. Thanos will kill him!" Sif replied angrily.

"Going where? Where is he going? Where were you?" Sean pelted her with questions.

"We were on Earth. He went to get Selving. Now, he's going to Hel. Jane Foster…" Sif started.

"Was here. We know that." Sean interrupted.

"Yes, Jane arrived with a message that said Loki was to take Kiri and go to Earth. There he was to collect Erik Selvig and travel to Hel."

"Erik? Why Erik?" Darcy asked, clearly puzzled.

"That is what Loki wanted to know, but Jane would not explain. I do not know why, but those were the instructions. I suggested to Loki that I pretend to be Kiri. He agreed, or at least I thought he agreed. As you can see, he obviously did not. We went to Earth, found Erik, then I ended up back here," Sif finished, clenching her fists in anger.

"So he's in Hel now?" Greiwaldt prompted.

"As far as I know. That is where he was supposed to go with Erik." Sif shook her head. "I do not understand that part. What good is Erik to him?"

"Erik is a scientist, like Jane. Erik was helping him, or rather helping Loki build a portal for the Chitauri on Earth. Thanos must want something more from him." Sean offered a possible explanation.

"And Ian. Is Ian still on Earth?" Darcy was suddenly concerned about her boyfriend.

"No." Heimdall answered cryptically.

"No?" Darcy wailed. "Where is he? What happened?"

Heimdall looked solemnly at Darcy, "He went with Loki and Erik Selvig."

"I never thought I would ask this, and not be happy, but is Loki in Hel?" Sif asked as Ian appeared in the portal.

Heimdall did not reply.

~ß~ Katirya ~ß~

"Ready?" Katirya asked the Warriors Three.

They nodded in return.

"Heimdall, we are ready to return." Katirya spoke, and they were whisked away via the Bifrost back to Asgard. "Well, I did not expect quite a welcoming party," she spoke when she saw the group in the portal chamber.

"Looks like everyone is here, except Loki." Darcy remarked.

"What do you mean, except Loki?" Katirya demanded. "Where is my husband? Don't tell me he took off on his own." She darted a glance at Sif.

"Don't blame me. I tried to go with him. He picked up Erik, then dumped me off here." Sif explained.

"Erik? He took Erik? Where did they go?" Katirya asked.

"Hel." Several voices spoke the one name.

"Hel?" Katirya threw her head back in exasperation. "I cannot believe he fell for that. Thanos truly knows how to get Loki to react."

"What do you mean?" Greiwaldt asked. "Although, that is what Sean and I felt. Thanos knows Loki too well."

"He's sending him on a wild goose chase. He knows Loki wouldn't bring me. That was part of the message, wasn't it?" Katirya asked.

"How did you know?" Sif looked at her suspiciously.

"Simple, Thanos still wants me. He also wants Loki. He knows Loki wouldn't bring me, so he sent Loki off on some wild task thinking I will get upset and take off after Loki." Katirya explained.

"So, you're not going to Hel? After Loki?" Darcy was confused.

"No, that is the LAST place I am going. Besides, it is not where Thanos has Thor." Katirya announced.

"You know where he is?" Sif asked, excitement in her eyes. "You know where Thanos is holding Thor?"

"I think so. If I'm right, he's on Earth somewhere." Katirya replied.

"Earth? But Loki just went there." Sif pointed out.

"But not to find Thor, right?" Katirya asked. When Sif nodded, she went on. "Thanos didn't say anything about Thor being there. He simply wanted him to bring Erik to him, supposedly on Hel. That part I do not understand. What else is he planning? We need to figure that part out, but I am fairly certain Thor is confined somewhere on Earth."

"Earth… " Sif repeated. "Why Earth?"

"Yes, Earth. That is the only logical place he could be. On Earth, his powers are reduced, although I doubt he has ever noticed it. If Thanos is able to strip him of any of them, he stands a better chance on Earth than anywhere else." Katirya explained.

"How do you know this?" Sean looked at his sister curiously.

"My father… rather, our father," Katirya corrected herself, "told me. Thanos knows how to use Odin Force. Taneleer doesn't know where or how he learned it, but he was fairly certain that Thanos knows the secret. We need a plan."